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Cheenu
was rather a unique boy. He was restless, hyperactive,
intelligent and notorious. He was kind hearted in his
own way only that his acts of kindness often led to
undesirable outcomes. During his childhood days he was a
nightmare to those around him. Every now and then he
would get a bright spark – so distinct that no one would
even dream of it. One such great idea was to set up a
zoo!
Our young hero lived in a small town on the foothills of
Western Ghats. It was a quiet, laid back place that was
home to domestic animals, rodents, stray dogs, cats,
troupes of monkeys, occasional rabbits, local birds and
insects in addition to a large population of humans. If
one did not take into account the human beings, there
weren’t much chances of finding variety of inmates for
the zoo. Nevertheless, he managed to sell the ‘zoo idea’
to his friends, Chandru, Swami, Visu, Kumar, Sankar and
Ramu. Few days went by and the group gathered to
finalize the plan. Well, first things first. It was
unanimously decided to name the zoo after Cheenu. Not a
surprise, considering Cheenu’s reputation of notoriety.
It was also decided that each group member would
contribute either an animal or bird to the proposed zoo.
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Next problem was
to find a place to house the animals and birds. It so happened,
Chandru’s older sister Meena was fascinated by this idea and she
convinced their widowed mother to let the kids use the only room
in the first floor of their house. So, a placard that read
“Cheenu’s Zoo” in bright colors was displayed on the window sill
facing the street.
Before long the hunt for the animals and birds began. Chandru,
though not a pied piper, decided to catch a rat, for the simple
reason there were quite a few running around his house. He tried
several times using a trap with different baits, but to no
avail. Ultimately, he managed to catch a white rat, probably an
albino, after successfully using ‘masala vada’ as the bait.
Cheenu’s mother loathed all pets, except a cat called Jinju, as
it helped reduce the large rat population in the house. Jinju
had recently littered, but wouldn’t allow anyone to come near
the kittens. One day, one of the kittens got trapped on the
first floor ledge, though no one knew how it got there. Both
Jinju and the little one made such a racket, that Cheenu’s
father got the gardener to rescue the kitten. After this
incident, Jinju became much more protective of the kittens and
Cheenu had to abandon the hope of making one of the kittens a
proud member of the Zoo.
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Soon
neighborhood doctor’s mongrel littered and the
sympathetic doctor let Cheenu adopt a brown puppy, who
was named ‘Tommy’. The puppy drank milk and barked all
the time. Cheenu’s mother lost patience after a few
days, and so Tommy was shifted to the ‘zoo’. Cheenu had
to smuggle milk from home to feed Tommy.
Swami found a parrot with a broken wing in his garden,
and shifted the bird to the ‘zoo’ in a cane basket. The
boys fed the parrot with bananas and mangoes. Cheenu and
Sankar spotted a rabbit on their way to school and
decided to give a chase. They ultimately caught the
rabbit after running through the paddy fields for more
than a mile, stumbling and falling several times. It
became Sankar’s responsibility to feed the rabbit.
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Even after a month, the number of zoo inmates
remained the same. Hence, after an emergency meeting, it was
unanimously decided to catch as many insects as possible. So a
dragonfly, few colorful butterflies, a cockroach, a grasshopper,
a caterpillar, a moth and a beetle were added to the collection.
Taking pity on their plight, Meena lent them a chicken. As the
inmates grew in number, the upkeep of the zoo became a problem
and as always, Cheenu came up with a brilliant plan to open the
zoo for public viewing. He suggested that the fee collection
could be used to feed the animals, birds and insects. An entry
fee of four annas (25 paise) was charged from the neighborhood
children and friends who visited the zoo. Unfortunately, the zoo
had visitors for only a couple of days.
With mounting school work, the boys could not spare time for the
zoo on a regular basis. Over time, the parrot’s broken wing
mended and it flew away through the open window. Meena took back
her chicken, the white rat escaped to be with its mates and the
insects could not be contained for long. Chandru’s mother grew
tired of Tommy’s incessant barking and asked the boys to vacate
the zoo. Cheenu was deeply distressed to part with the puppy and
the rabbit, but managed to find loving homes for them. Yes,
Cheenu was indeed a unique boy, albeit with a golden heart.
Contributing
Story Teller:
Rathika Lakshminarayanan, I am a professional medical
writer with passion for creative writing.
lrathika63@yahoo.co.in
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